Chance encounters: Alien abduction in the Pennines
Photographer Rik Moran’s new book looks at the strange case of PC Alan Godfrey in Todmorden, 1980.
Borderlands are often otherworldly places.
And that’s as true for the Lancashire-Yorkshire frontier as it is for the US-Mexico border.
Take Todmorden, for example. A town that straddled the boundary between red and white roses, the hills surrounding it have long been noted for mysterious goings-on – especially those of an extraterrestrial nature.
Most notorious is the alleged alien abduction of PC Alan Godfrey on November 28th, 1980. Godfrey was already investigating another bizarre case: the death of miner Zygmunt Adamski on June 11th. He’d been found dead on a pile of coal with no visible signs of injury except for a mark – perhaps a burn – on the back of his neck and head.
Six months after Adamski’s death, PC Godfrey revealed an even stranger tale. While investigating cattle roaming, he saw a white dome-shaped object appear in front of him, before being blinded by a flash of light. He blacked out and came to his senses 20 minutes later – and 100 yards away – with no memory of what had happened to him. Soon his story became national news: had he been abducted by aliens? Were UFOs making forays to the Pennines? Why did PC Godfrey’s body, like Zygmunt Adamski’s, have an unexplained burn?
Forty years after, photojournalist (and regular Umbrella contributor) Rik Moran has written a book, Chance Encounters In The Valley Of Lights. Telling the story of the case through words, original photography and never-before-seen archival material, it’s an arresting synthesis of psychogeography, investigative journalism and art.
Here, we speak to Rik – now living in New York – about this most bizarre case.
Hi Rik. Give us a brief rundown of what happened…
I was a young lad when my dad brought home a newspaper with the story of a local policeman who claimed he’d been abducted by a UFO. The story goes like this:
November 28th, 1980, 5am. PC Alan Godfrey was on duty when he was called to a report of cattle roaming loose around a local housing estate. Driving down Burnley Rd he saw what he thought was a bus that had skewed across the road.
On getting closer he encountered a spinning object, 20 feet wide, hovering above the ground. He tried to radio his station: the radio was dead. His car wouldn’t start either. So he sketched out what he saw in his notebook. There was a flash of light and he was 100 yards down the road.
The next year Godfrey underwent three hypnosis sessions where he recalled being taken onboard the craft and examined. This correlated with 20 minutes of lost time he’d had, and the strange marks on his foot and split boot also backed up his recollection of having bracelets attached to his legs during the examination.
Why did you decide to document it?
It’s such a crazy, complex and layered story, I wanted to bring it to a wider audience. As I researched it, I found so many interesting threads and stories. Take Zygmunt Adamski – the
Polish miner found dead on a coal pile with mysterious burns – PC Alan Godfrey was the first one on the scene.
Another strange event: Godfrey had also been unable to father any more children after a fight where he was kicked in the groin. But following his alleged alien encounter, his wife saw a bright flash of light before going to bed. In the morning they made love and shortly after she fell pregnant. Then when he went public with his story, other sightings that night and related tales appeared.
There were countless reconstructions – all with slightly different elements: in one he was driving a Mini and had a southern accent: another, a Cortina and a northern accent. It played to the idea of storytelling to me: stories change, evolve and grow as we tell them. A lot of the reconstructions feature in the book, with a variety of other archive material.
What was your approach to the project’s photography?
Much like any story, I had pictures in my mind already about what the locations looked like. I started with the actual places but also looked around for photos that matched what was in my head. I shot some images on Aerochrome film: infrared film that was used by the military for aerial surveillance. It basically captures a broad band of the light spectrum, including UV light, visible light and infrared light. It felt like a good medium for the project.
I also gathered a lot of archive material, combing through microfiches at the local library, visiting the British Archives to go through their UFO files, and sourcing UFO ’zines from the time (these feature in the special edition as an extra publication). I contacted many UFO experts as well, and gained access to unpublished images and notes.
“On getting closer, PC Godfrey saw a spinning object, 20 feet wide, hovering above the ground”
How would you describe the area?
Todmorden has been described as the UFO capital of the UK. Even growing up it was an interesting place, full of characters. I remember my dad saying he knew when someone was from ‘Tod’ as soon as he saw them. As I researched the area, I found more and more supernatural tales: from witches to UFO sightings to a 1960s BFI film shot locally that’s eerily prescient about Godfrey’s encounter.
Did you find any new evidence about the events?
After attending the local UFO club (yes, it’s a thing) and meeting the local bookstore owner, he told me of a guy who’d seen a UFO earlier the same year with Godfrey’s son. I found out about other witnesses the same night, and heard tales of the tarmac being replaced under the site. Godfrey also self published a book where he claims he was pushed out of the police force by ‘men in black’ who tried to keep him from talking to the media.
Do you really think aliens did visit Lancashire?
Well, the interesting thing is, Todmorden was once in both Lancashire and Yorkshire [it’s now in West Yorkshire]. The county boundary followed the River Calder directly under the town hall where you could ballroom-dance across counties. For me, it’s never been about solving this story: more about sharing the many threads so people can make their own mind up. I’ll leave the answer to that one up to them when they see the book.
Chance Encounters In The Valley Of Lights is out now, published by Centre Centre publishing.